Space and Time
by merlynn
Summary: (Retitled) When an old enemy breaks the bonds of his magical prison, the next generation of Halliwell witches must travel back in time to warn their mothers of what is to come.


Beyond Time and Space……..

The man stands alone in blackness surrounded by a barrier he cannot see or touch. He knows there is a world outside of this prison. He knows there was a woman he once loved. He knows he has the power to escape. He is haunted by the last words his former lover ever said to him…...How can I trust you? I don't even know who you are. 

How did it all go so wrong? How could this woman who was bonded to him so completely say she doesn't know who he is? His power had grown so much. He knew now that their bond was deeper than this life. It stretched through the ages to at least three past lives though there could be more. The only bond that was stronger than his bond to her, was her bond to her sisters. Her damn sisters. It hadn't always been that way. They weren't always that close. They weren't even always family. In one lifetime they simply belonged to the same coven. 

But now she did choose them. The last words he heard besides that damn spell were from the new one…..Just because we can't kill you, doesn't mean we can't contain you. How many times did he have the chance to kill her? Now here he sat in this damn prison. He has the power to escape this prison, if he can just figure it out. 

________

Piper looks at her daughter as she adjusts her wedding veil. Her daughter was wearing her hair just like she did on her wedding day, just like her mom had in her wedding pictures. Piper wondered how long this hair style could stay in fashion. She didn't even notice she had started to cry until she felt her daughter's hand on her face wiping the tear away. Piper smiled.

Piper: I know Prue. If I start crying now, I will ruin everyone's makeup.

Prue giggled. She looks like my sister when she laughs, Piper thought. Her daughter had chosen to have a small ceremony in the manor much like her own wedding. Prue wasn't going to be there though, she was busy and Piper understood. Besides, she would just ruin the cake anyway Piper thought.

Prue: What is that smile all about? 

Piper: Huh? Oh, just remembering my own wedding. I hope yours in less eventful.

Phoebe: All Halliwell weddings are eventful sis. Some more so than others.

Piper (turning to her sister): Yes, both of yours were very interesting though I liked the second one much more.

Phoebe: Well, it certainly turned out better. 

Prue: Where is my cousin anyway? I saw Linda outside already.

Phoebe: I sent Trisha to check on your father. He is extremely nervous for some reason.

Just then Trisha and Linda come walking into the master bedroom with Paige.

Linda: Uncle Leo says Halliwell weddings never go according to planned and he just wants the best for his little girl. Darryl is trying to keep him calm.

Piper looks back at her daughter: Well, shall we get you into your dress?

________

Deep in the blackness of his prison, Cole finds the answer he has been seeking. With a pained scream he breaks free from his magical confinement. 

________

Phoebe stumbles like she has been hit in the stomach. The women in the room spin around to see if she is alright. 

Piper: Phoebe?

The look of horror on her sister's face is all she needs to tell that something is very wrong. Then suddenly Piper feels it too, and she turns to Paige to confirm what her gut is telling her. 

Paige: It can't be. There is no way he could have…..

The room fills with flames.

Cole: No way I could have what?

Cole walks over to his one-time bride. She had aged at least a decade since he saw her last, perhaps two. She aged well though. He isn't disappointed. He takes her chin in his hand.

Cole: That isn't happiness to see me, is it my love?

Trisha: Mom, what is going on?

Phoebe: Trisha, stay back.

Cole turns to look at the woman behind him. A woman with cocoa skin, black hair and black eyes. He knew this woman could never be his child. Rage filled inside him.

Cole: Mom? You took another love? You left me in a void of space and took another lover! You gave another man the child you denied me?

Piper tried furiously to freeze or explode this demon who they hadn't been able to beat decades before. Paige orbed behind her sister to try to free her only to get herself flung across the room. 

Cole screamed at the betrayal of his former lover. He shouted that he would never allow this time line to continue. He threw a black goo at Phoebe. Trisha heard in her mind as Cole locked eyes with her, that he would see to it that she was never born. Cole locked eyes with Piper as she heard his voice say that he would see her in the past. Then he flamed away.

Piper ran to her sister while screaming out Leo's name. Paige grabbed Prue's hand as they tried to use their half-whitelighter powers to save Phoebe. Trisha just fell to her mother's side and started to cry. 

Leo orbed into the master bedroom with Darryl, Victor and Mark busting through the door moments later. Leo raced to Phoebe's side. All three of them were doing their best to heal Phoebe as the black goo seeped through her body.

Piper sat on the floor with Phoebe's head in her lap. 

Piper: Why isn't it working? Why isn't she ok?

Leo: Whatever is in her keeps moving. It is killing every part of her at once. If we heal her heart, her lungs collapse.

Phoebe looks up at her sister with tears in her eyes.

Phoebe: You and …Prue were right. I never should….have let him live.

She turns to look at her daughter.

Phoebe: I never deserved you. You … made my life…..worth something.

Then she closed her eyes and died.

________

The room filled with an eerie silence. Trisha was sobbing over her mother's body. It had only been a year since she had lost her father. She would be filled with rage if she could feel anything but loss.

Piper was beating Leo's chest. All she could do was scream bastard over and over again. 

Victor was just sitting in the corner crying softly. He had outlived two daughters now. He simply could not believe this was happening. 

Darryl had gone downstairs to tell the very few guests who had been invited that the wedding would not be held today. 

Mark was upstairs in the attic searching for something, anything to save the family he had been accepted into. He had seen his parents killed by demons when he was very young. He never felt right in this world until he fell in love with Prue. He had gone from hating magic, to accepting his witch abilities, to loving his ability to save innocents. There had to be some way magic could save his soon to be aunt.

Prue wanted answers. She pulled Linda and Paige aside.

Prue: Aunt Paige, who was he? What happened here?

Paige: He was someone we should have killed. But we let him live too long. He became too powerful. Then all we could do was contain him. At least we thought we could. I guess we were wrong.

Linda: Mom, what did he mean when he said he would see to it that Trisha was never born?

Piper turns to her family.

Piper: He means he is traveling back in time. I don't know what he plans to do, but we can't let him do it. Paige, it looks like we are going to pay a visit to our past selves.

Leo: Honey, I don't know if you can. I mean…

Mark walks into the bedroom: No, but perhaps your daughters can.

Trisha looks up. 

Prue: What are you talking about?

Mark: I found this spell in the Book of Shadows. 

Piper: That's the spell we used when we traveled back to the 70s, when we were children. I thought that was a one time use spell. I don't think it will work.

Mark: Perhaps not, but I think we can change it around a little. And power of three spells have worked with Prue and her cousins.

Prue: So we can go back to a time when we can warn you all of what is to come.

Mark: But you would need to go back to where he has gone.

Paige: The find a lost love spell. We can change it so they can follow Phoebe's lost love wherever he has gone. And we will be here to say the reversal spell and bring them back.

Trisha (her voice filled with bitterness): But Mom's lost love isn't that bastard.

Piper: We will be very specific. We won't send the three of you to Trisha's father. It could work.

_______

Cole flames into a familiar scene. A demon has just gone up in dust from Piper's exploding power. He watches as the sisters recite toss one of their potions and vanquish yet another demon to the great wasteland. He ponders for a moment what power that demon possessed. He wonders if he can still get to the wasteland like he could before. He turns to watch his past self battle with a third demon. He manages to kill the demon before the sisters can get to him. He wonders for a minute if he went farther back than he wanted.

Phoebe looks at Cole for a minute and then turns and walks away. Cole runs after her. Her sisters stop for a minute before Phoebe tells them she will be along in a minute. They continue on to the car and wait for Phoebe to join them. 

Cole: Phoebe, what do I have to do?

Phoebe: Nothing Cole. There is nothing left for you to do.

Cole: I love you. I know there is something left for us.

Phoebe: You want me back?

Cole: More than anything.

Phoebe: It's simple then. To win me, win my sisters first. 

Cole: Phoebe….

Phoebe: Cole, I've made a lot of bad choices and I have hurt my sisters more than you can ever know. If you want me, you have to get past them. I will never put another man over them again. Ever.

Cole watched as Phoebe turned to leave. He remembered how he still had hope he could convince the sisters he could be good. He remembered how wrong he had been. He was definitely at the right time. He smiled. He decided to check out the wasteland and see if things were still the same.

______

Prue, Trisha, and Linda appeared in the attic. At first they thought the spell hadn't worked, but then they looked around and noticed the candles were gone along with Piper and Paige. They were in the past. Now they just had to convince their past parents that they were their children and that danger was coming. 

______

Prue, Trisha, and Linda sat at the top of the stair as they listened to their mothers walk into the house.

Paige: I cannot believe he still wants to be with you.

Phoebe: Calm down sweetie. I told him it was hopeless.

Piper: You did?

Phoebe: Well, I told him he had to get the approval of my sisters first.

Paige: That's hopeless alright.

Phoebe: You know, I really can't see why you hate him so much. It's not like he tried to kill you over and over again. Oh wait, it is like that isn't it? Have I told you how sorry I am today?

Paige smiles and grabs Phoebe's hand.

Upstairs, Prue whispers to her cousins that now seemed like as good a time as any. The girls run down the stairs. Trisha can't help herself. She grabs her mother and hugs her tight while Piper and Paige look on in shock.

Prue: I know this is going to seem a little strange, but we are your…..

Leo orbs in and finishes her sentence.

Leo: …..daughters from the future. The Elders say they are here to warn you that the time line is being altered in an unnatural way.

Prue smiles: Daddy, stop that.

Piper looks at Prue then puts her hand on her stomach. Prue smiles and she realizes what her mother is thinking. Prue walks over to her mother and puts her hand on Piper's stomach.

Prue: That's me?

Piper smiles and looks at her daughter in surprise.

Piper: I guess so. 

Phoebe turns to the girl who had just let her out of a bear hug and was still holding her hand.

Phoebe: I suppose that means you are my daughter?

Trisha smiles and nods. 

Trisha: Can we tell them our names? 

Linda: I think it's ok. I'm Melinda but you call me Linda.

Paige: And you are my…..

Linda nods and goes over to hug her mother.

Trisha: I'm Patricia, but you call me Trisha.

Paige: And she is obviously not Cole's daughter.

Phoebe regards her daughter with dark brown, almost black skin, black hair and black eyes. 

Phoebe: No, she isn't.

Prue: And I'm….

Piper: Let me guess, Prue?

Prue: Yes and we actual came here because of Cole.

Phoebe looks at the anger on her daughter's face and the concern on the others.

Phoebe: This cannot be good.

_______

Cole found his way around the wasteland well enough after all these years. He absorbed powers here and there until he meet up with his past self. He gave his younger self a real shock when he snuck up behind him. 

Cole turned to face the mirror image of himself. He had no idea what this meant, but he didn't have to wait long for his image to explain.

Cole thinks rather than speaks…..Absorbing powers? I forgot I did that so early. What was my justification? More powers to save innocents? Yes, surely they will forgive me then.

Cole: Who are you? What are you doing here?

Cole hears in his head…..I'm you, you fool. A few decades older. A prison cell wiser. They will never forgive you. They will trap you and she will move on. Your marriage means nothing to her. 

Cole: I don't believe you.

Cole hears laughter…..You think you can do enough good, you can't. The only way is to kill them and take your bride back. It would be easier if we did it together.

Cole: No! I won't do that to her.

Cole watches as his image vanishes from the wasteland with the echoes of his last words replaying in his mind….. It doesn't matter. I exist outside of time and space. I can kill you if I have to and still do as I please. 

_______

The sisters and their daughters are sitting around the living room. Silence fills the air as they contemplate what they have just heard. Piper is the first to speak.

Piper: So he keeps going back to the wasteland and acquiring more powers? 

Linda: You said he was using them for good at first, but the more you all rejected his efforts the more frustrated he got.

Prue: He eventually got so much power it corrupted him. You said you allowed him to live too long. That in the end, you couldn't kill him. 

Linda: So you tried to contain him. You must have trapped him for over two decades.

Prue: But he broke free.

Linda: On Prue's wedding day.

Phoebe looked at her niece knowing that was not the worst of the story.

Trisha: He killed you mom, and then he vowed I would never exist. He came back here and we came back to warn you.

Phoebe: Oh god. I swear he will not hurt you.

Trisha: Mom, you told Aunt Piper you should have never let him live before you died. But I can tell by the look on your face he meant something to you. Not as much as Daddy, I'm sure. But, can you kill him now?

Phoebe looks at her beautiful daughter and then around at her family, present and future.

Phoebe: I can kill him and more if that is what needs to be done to protect the future.

Cole flames into the manor just as she says this….

Cole: Figures you would say that.

He starts to throw the black goo that killed Phoebe in the future….. but his current self appears before him to block the way and screams for the girls to run.

Leo, Paige, and Prue instinctively grab whoever is next to them and they all orb to safety. 

Cole stares at his past self and just laughs. He flames out. Cole is left in the manor he knew as home for a short time. He transports to his father's crypt and falls to his knees crying. He now knew he would never again know Phoebe's love. Not in this life anyway. The least he could do now is save her life and her happiness.

End part one.

Cole flames in behind his younger self kneeling, weeping by his father's grave. How could he have once been this pathetic love sick fool? Let him cry he thought to himself. Once he was done with all of them, Phoebe would be his, and she would love him again. He could wait an eternity and in the wasteland she won't age either. He was not going to loose her again. He decided not to try to convince this sniveling fool to help him save their future. He flamed out to plan his next attack. He was determined it would be his last.

Cole had felt the presence of …himself. He despised the man he had become, even more than he despised himself when he was the Source. He would save Phoebe's life even if it was the last thing he ever did. Just then he realized what he needed. He would have to move quickly to get it in time.

_______

The room filled with their voices almost before Leo and the women had completely orbed into the back of P3. 

Trisha: He has powers! How the hell does he have powers? We don't have our powers.

Leo: He exists outside of time and space. Isn't that what the Angel of Destiny told you?

Piper: I suppose that means none of those stupid rules you are always telling us about apply to him. Honey, can you explain to me again why only the good guys seem to come with limitations?

Leo: Piper, I….

Piper: Don't worry about it. I know you don't make up this crap. 

Paige: Speaking of having powers. Prue, you can orb?

Prue: I didn't even think about it. 

Leo: Maybe whitelighter powers don't come with such limitations?

Piper: Now that would be a first.

Trisha: It must be, I tried my powers back in the manor just out of reflex. Nothing worked.

Linda: Mine didn't work either. Perhaps……

Linda closes her eyes, concentrates, and then levitates.

Linda: That's the only whitelighter power I inherited. I don't get it.

Prue: Maybe because whitelighters don't really die, they sort of defy time in a way?

Piper: I don't know and I don't really care. I'm glad you can orb. It made things back there a little easier. Right now we have a bigger problem to worry about.

Trisha: Where are we anyway?

Phoebe: It's the back of P3, Piper's club.

Prue: Oh, ok. Will he know to look here?

Piper: Probably. We really need to get back to the manor anyway. 

Leo: I'll go ahead and see if he has gone. I'll come back to get you if he has.

Piper kisses Leo before he orbs away. She whispers to be careful.

Piper and Prue say in unison: We need a plan.

Piper smiled. She wondered for a second what power or powers her daughter had besides the ability to orb. Then she looked at her nieces and wondered the same thing. She touches her stomach and thinks about how interesting it would be to raise these children.

Cole appearing before them interrupts Piper's mental timeout.

Cole: Perhaps I can help with that plan.

Piper, Paige and Phoebe move in front of their daughters and Piper moves to explode the demon standing in front of her.

Cole: Wait! It's me, not him. I mean, not the future me. I ….

Phoebe: What do you want Cole?

Cole: To give you this.

He hands her a crystal.

Cole: The only way you could have trapped him in the type of prison he describes is to have used an imbued crystal, but I'm not sure where you would have found one. This one is imbued by an ancient sect of monks from ….well, you don't need to know that. The magic is strong and holy. I did them a favor once. They know when you are telling the truth. When I told them what I wanted it for, they agreed.

Phoebe looks at the crystal. She thanks Cole for his help.

Phoebe: Do you have any idea if this is how it happened the first time?

Trisha: I don't think so. It might be a stronger prison than the one you used.

Cole: You will still need a spell. I imagine it is in the Book of Shadows though.

Leo orbs in to tell them the house is clear. He looks at Cole suspiciously.

Piper: It's ok. He is trying to help, or so it seems. Well then, let's get back to the house and get ready.

Cole: May I come?

Piper looks at Phoebe, then back at Cole.

Piper: If you betray us again, I swear there will not be enough magic in the world to protect you from the vengeance I will visit on you. Do you understand me?

Cole nods. They all leave for the manor.

_______

The attic seemed small with all of them in there. Paige had found the spell in the Book of Shadows and she and Linda were preparing the room for the ritual that would trap Cole in the crystal. Currently they were placing candles at five points with the crystal in the center.

Phoebe had pulled Trisha off to one corner. They were talking, but Piper was sure nothing about the future was being exchanged. It just looked like Phoebe felt she had another person to apologize to for her choices with Cole.

Cole was sitting in another corner looking sadder than words could describe. Piper was remembering all the good this man she briefly thought of as family had done. She wondered if things could have turned out differently for him and her sister. Then she looked at the man she had chosen for her husband, and she was grateful for his love. 

Prue: Mother, he wasn't always the man we saw in the future, was he?

Piper: No, he was not. His story is too long to tell right now, but there was good in him once. There may still be now. I don't know how he became the man who threatens us all now.

Phoebe walked over to Cole, while Trisha joined her aunts and cousins. 

Phoebe: I don't know how we got here.

Cole: The wrong priorities. I always wanted to be with you. I didn't care how. I should have wanted to be good and everything else might have worked out.

Phoebe: I sure don't see how you can become him. Even as the Source, you were never…

Cole: Please don't talk about that. Somehow you built a life for yourself after me. You have a lovely daughter and a loving family. I want you to know that future. I wish it could have been with me, but ……

Phoebe reaches up to touch Cole's face. She looks deep in those eyes where she can still see love. Then she realizes she did still love him. Tears fill her eyes and they embrace.

Cole flames in to see this touching scene, but nothing can penetrate his hate-filled heart. He laughs at the two of them. Then he turns to the other witches in the room. He throws a fireball at Linda, which Paige catches and volleys back at him. It doesn't even stun him. 

Cole growls: Try playing catch with this, witch.

Cole's hand fills with the black goo that Trisha had watch kill her mother what seemed like minutes before. He throws it toward Prue and Linda.

Trisha screams: No!

Piper raises her hand and an energy shield surrounds her daughter and niece. The black goo is deflected by the shield.

Paige: What was that?

Piper: I have no idea!

Prue: It's an energy shield. It's more advanced in the future, but that's probably how it started out.

Cole laughs. He turns and locks eyes with Trisha. I'll settle for this one, he says. He raises his hands….

Phoebe raises her hands out of instinct, not really knowing what she was doing. Suddenly electricity joltz from both hands toward the man threatening her daughter. This felt familiar. Where did she know this from? Their trip to the future. This was her future power.

This time Paige didn't stop to ask what was going on. She didn't even call for the knife that was sitting by the Book of Shadows. She just directed it into Cole's side. His blood dripped down onto the crystal he was standing over. 

Cole grabbed the other knife by the Book of Shadows and slit open his hand. He left the knife, dripping with his blood, sitting on a table before running into the center of the circle and picking up the crystal. 

Cole: Piper, now!

Bolts of electricity running through his body, a knife piercing his side, and now his younger self fighting him, with a crystal in his hand. A crystal. Not again.

Piper, Paige and Phoebe begin to recite the spell……

The pain you have caused, you will now feel

For your crimes, there is no appeal

A crystal prison shall you know

Beyond time and space shall you go.

Cole looked at his lost love, tears running down his face. I will protect your future he told her before they disappeared into the crystal prison.

Paige now held the knife in her hand she had used to pierce Cole's side. She walked over to the table where Cole had left the other knife. 

Piper: We had better freeze those and start working on a potion. Even if this crystal is stronger than the first one she used. I don't want to leave our fates to that.

Trisha stood in the middle of the circle starring at the crystal. Phoebe put her arm around her daughter as she picked it up. Trisha just grabbed hold of her mother hoping this meant she wouldn't loose her, at least not yet.

_________

The girls were now all sitting down in the living room. The danger seemed to have passed and there was so much they wanted to talk to their mothers about, but knew they couldn't. Piper and Paige came walking in. Phoebe was already sitting in the room just holding Trisha's hand.

Piper: I think we have the spell ready to send you back.

Trisha: I'm not ready.

Prue: I know sweetie, but we …

Trisha: I know.

Trisha hugged her mother once again then walked over to her cousins. Prue smiled at her mother.

Prue: I guess I will see you all soon.

Phoebe and Paige both smiled and grabbed Piper's hands. Piper begins the spell.

Our children, our future

We send you back to your own time and place.

Phoebe and Paige repeat the spell.

Our children, our future

We send you back to your own time and place.

The sisters watch as their daughters disappear feeling good about the future for the first time in quite awhile.

_________

The two men stopped their battle for just minutes. Just enough time for the older one to mock the younger. The darkness that surrounded them was overwhelming. There were times when he understood what this prison must have done to his older self. But he refused to become that man. He refused to hate Phoebe. The laughter and mocking that echoed in his head was enough to drive him insane he thought. Fighting was the only thing that made it stop. So he reached out to continue the battle.

Just then light broke through the darkness. He watched as his opponent was ripped out of the prison cell that had bound them for so long. He sat in the darkness, alone.

_________

Cole growled with laughter at the scene around him. They had deliberately taken him from his prison. Did they honestly think they could defeat him now?

Trisha lifted her hands and slammed Cole against a wall. Linda summoned her father's powers and surrounded Cole in a gust of wind and then fire. Prue dabbed the potion over the knife that still had Cole's blood on it. Paige orbed it out of Prue's hand into Phoebe's. Phoebe was already levitating and walking toward Cole. She was surrounded by an energy shield that Piper was using to guard her from any powers Cole might have a chance to use. Phoebe looked at the man's face that had caused her family so much pain in the past. She didn't even blink as stabbed him with the poisoned knife. Cole felt his life drain out of him. He really had thought he was unbeatable. Then he welcomed death.

Phoebe landed on the floor where Cole had just been vanquished. She looked at the knife that had dropped to the floor.

Trisha: Mom, are you sure we got the right one?

Phoebe: I could see the hate in his eyes. I'm sure.

Prue: Do you think the other one will be the same?

Phoebe: That, I don't know. Do you have the potion ready?

_______

Cole was sitting alone in the darkness. How long had it been since his cellmate had been ripped out? He was starting to miss the combat. Now all that was left was the guilt and loneliness. Then there was light.

_______

He stood before all of them. The daughters were almost exactly as he remembered them. The sisters were older, but they all still looked beautiful. Especially Phoebe. His eyes filled with tears when he saw her again. Then he looked at the floor and saw the knife. They had vanquished his other self. What would they do with him?

Phoebe walked over to him with the knife he had used to cut his hand. In her other hand, she was holding a potion. She just starred in his eyes. He had no idea what she was looking for, but he decided whatever she did to him – he would accept it without a fight.

Phoebe looked to her older sister and nodded. Piper had grown to trust her sister's sixth sense, but she looked to Paige for confirmation. Paige nodded her agreement with Phoebe.

Piper: Cole, what you did showed that in this current state you still have good in you. We feel that we can trust that good, but we don't know if it will stay that way.

Cole: I promise….

Piper: No Cole, we need more than your word. You acquired certain powers while in the wasteland. From what we can piece together from the other timeline, you acquired so much power that it corrupted you. We can't allow that to happen again.

Paige: But when we vanquished your demon half before it left a void that was filled in the most unfortunate way. We don't want that to happen again. 

Phoebe: So, you have a choice now. You can keep what powers you have gathered to date, but you must give up all teleport type powers. Or……

Phoebe looked down at her other hand. Cole could see the sadness in her eyes. He pointed to the potion and she nodded. Cole drank the potion without a second thought.

Cole: Ok, but someone better help me get a driver's license because I don't want to walk everywhere I go. 

The room filled with laughter. This was defiantly not the man the daughters had known. This was the man in the pictures in the attic.

Cole looked at Phoebe and then over her shoulder to Trisha.

Cole: You are happy then?

Phoebe smiled and nodded.

Cole: I'm glad.

Trisha walked over to her mother's side.

Trisha: She isn't going to tell you, so I will. My father passed away not so long ago. She isn't ready to love again just yet. But if you are willing to wait, and prove yourself, she isn't off the market forever.

Phoebe looked at her daughter in shock. Trisha hugged her mother and then moved over to her aunts and cousins.

Phoebe: She's right, I'm not ready. I'm not sure if I will ever be ready again. But the deal still stands. You have to win my family to even have a chance with me. That may not be as impossible as I once thought, but it is still a requirement.

Cole looked at the ladies behind him. He was ever so grateful just to have the chance.

Cole: I understand.

Phoebe: All I can offer you now is friendship. Besides you look young enough to be my son.

Cole waved his hand over his face so that he matched Phoebe's age in appearance.

Phoebe laughed. 

Phoebe: That's what Leo does. I won't live as long as you, you know. I may never feel the way I once did.

Cole looked deep into Phoebe's eyes. He knew what he was thinking was overwhelmingly sappy, but he couldn't help himself.

Cole: Friendship is more than I ever hoped for when I went into that prison to protect you. Every day I spend in your presence is more heaven than I deserve. 

Paige leaned over to her older sister and whispered: A happy ending for Cole and Phoebe?

Piper smiled and answered: Happier than I would have once believed possible.

Then Piper thought back to when the Angel of Destiny offered them "normal lives." She looked around the room at her magical family. At her daughter who had married Mark shortly after she and her cousins returned from the past, and was now pregnant with her first child. Paige, her baby sister she once thought she would never really feel close to, had become her best friend. Phoebe had found happiness with a human, a very open-minded human. They had all raised magical daughters without binding their powers. Her older sister Prue found her own destiny. They had saved countless innocents. The Halliwell legacy would more than go on, it would thrive long after she and her sisters were gone. The craft she had once considered a curse had turned out to truly be a blessing, and it always would be Piper thought. 

Piper then said more to herself than to Paige: But then again, we are witches and anything is possible.


End file.
